STAY TUNED: Scrubbing the soaps, learning the ratings game

BILL GREEN

5:47 PM, Dec 2, 2011

We'll start this week with a reader question: "There has been no column by you for the past two weeks in the Saturday Neapolitan section of the Daily News. Are you still writing your Saturday column, and have just been on vacation? Also, I would like to see more mention of what is going on with the local channels." Yes, Rose, I did take a brief respite. But I'm back and ready tackle all that is TV. Much has happened while I was away: n Web plans for "All My Children" and "One Life To Live" have now been canceled. n New shows are being benched for holiday cartoons and specials. n And finally, we got a first glimpse at the local ratings for November.

Soap scrubbings

On the soaps, I called it in my July 16 column, "Soaps won't wash on the Internet." However, even I never expected they'd be done before they even started.

I don't have an inside track as to what happened, but I suspect the Guilds (who represent the actors, writers, stage hands, etc.) played a large part in the decision. Don't get me wrong, I support unions. But there was no way that Prospect Park, the company trying to bring the soaps to the web, could shell out the kind of dough that the networks had.

Ratings, part 1

In local TV news, the November sweeps period just came to an end and one station is already claiming the victory crown in a majority of the time periods.

On Monday, I received an email from Darrel Lieze-Adams, executive news director and manager of promotions at Waterman Broadcasting, entitled "NBC 2 News declares November ratings win."

The press release continues, "NBC 2 News is number one in more time periods than any other station in Southwest Florida winning at 4:30 a.m., 5 a.m., 6 a.m., 4 p.m., 5 p.m., 5:30 p.m. and 6 p.m."

Before we get into the numbers, let me clarify a few points. First, the numbers I'm going to share with you are generated through Nielsen Media Research, and have been obtained through the NBC 2 press release.

These ratings are based on overnights and don't represent the final Nielsen numbers, which aren't available until later in this month.

Second, the numbers also reflect households, not demographics.

How we get our info Since Nielsen greatly limits what it releases to the media, generally writers such as myself will obtain a copy of the report directly from at least two stations in the market and compare for accuracy, thus creating a two-source article.

However, in the Southwest Florida market, WINK-TV is not a subscriber to the Nielsen ratings. Instead the company uses Rentrak. More on that next week. Fox 4 does subscribe to Nielsen, but the station's owner, Journal Broadcasting, is a publicly traded company with stations across the country, which limits what information the company releases in any particular local market.

That leaves ABC 7 and NBC 2, both of which are operated by Waterman.

Overnights are tracked for 20 days in November. Although the press release doesn't make it clear, one could assume that NBC 2's press release is based on the Day 20 report, when numbers from the entire tracking period are available.

Upon receiving the press release, I asked Lieze-Adams and Steve Pontius, executive vice president and general manager for Waterman Broadcasting, to provide me with the entire Day 20 report. I also asked for last year's report so that I could compare numbers year over year to see if the station's newscast audience was growing in each of the time periods — especially with all the changes at NBC 2 (the dismissal of Craig Wolf, the switch with meteorologists Haley Webb and Robert Van Winkle.)

I also asked how both stations' other newscasts — those specifically not addressed in the press release (noon and 11 p.m.) — were doing. I did not receive a response from Waterman to those requests as of press time.

By the numbers

So here's the numbers that were provided by NBC 2 in their initial press release.

"NBC 2 News Early Today at 4:30 a.m." is No. 1 in that time period with a 1.1 household rating, beating closest competitor "CBS Morning News."

"NBC 2 News Today at 5 a.m." is No. 1 in the time period with a 2.4 household rating, beating closest competitor WINK. In the afternoon, "NBC 2 News First at 4 p.m." is No. 1 in the time period with a 3.0 household rating, besting closest competitor WINK.

NBC 2's 5 and 5:30 and 6 p.m. newscasts lead with a 5.0, 5.6, and 7.7. As a writer, I can't help but be a little disappointed that Waterman Broadcasting didn't respond to my inquiries, especially since it employs a number of journalists who depend on getting answers to their questions to deliver the news to you each and every day.

Next week, I'll be able to deliver those year over year comparisons, and give you a closer look at the Nielsen and Rentrak numbers.